Daily Batter Breakdown: Monday, May 11th
Welcome to the Daily Batter Breakdown. Whenever there are at least eight games on the night slate, I’ll break down some of the best top tier hitters to target based on matchup.
The biggest split taken into account will be left/right, but each player card will also show park factors, player salaries and then a description of why I’ll be targeting him.
 | Anthony Rizzo | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.281 | 0.907 | 6.25% | 0.391 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.333 | 1.122 | 10.00% | 0.473 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Degrom – RIGHT | 0.224 | 0.639 | 1.40% | 0.289 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 0.931 | 0.000 | $4,400 | $12,700 | $4,800 | $93,000 | ||
Anthony Rizzo
The Cubs today are a solid stack, as they are projecting 15 MPH winds blowing out at Wrigley tonight. Rizzo destroys right-handed pitchers at home, and while I like deGrom as a pitcher, Vegas still has the Cubs at 4.5 runs today. I like Montero as well, but it will most likely be Lester’s personal catcher David Ross at C today for the Cubbies. Rizzo has improved every year, hitting and his .267 ISO, .968 OPS and .413 wOBA, which are all extremely solid numbers against right-handed pitching no matter who you are.
 | Chris Davis | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.199 | 0.716 | 5.65% | 0.312 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.227 | 0.792 | 9.09% | 0.343 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Estrada – RIGHT | 0.222 | 0.719 | 5.18% | 0.316 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 0.932 | 0.000 | $3,600 | $10,700 | $4,800 | $78,500 | ||
Chris Davis
Davis is expensive today and is a GPP-only play for me considering his lack of overall hitting ability. The fact remains, however, that he has incredible power and is one of the better home run hitters in the majors. If he is getting a hit, there’s a good chance that it is going out. He has a career .361 wOBA and a .250 ISO, but is underperforming a bit this year so I am wary of using him at that price. Still, his lower ownership percentage and the fact that the Jays/O’s game is one of the only ones in a hitter’s park makes me like him.
 | Devon Travis | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | |||||||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.160 | 0.512 | 4.00% | 0.224 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Jimenez – RIGHT | |||||||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 0.932 | 0.000 | $3,400 | $8,150 | $3,300 | $94,800 | ||
Devon Travis
Travis is extremely cheap at $3,300 on DraftKings today and has actually been very good against right-handed pitching in his debut year. His .883 OPS, .207 ISO and .387 wOBA are all very solid numbers and he is not really sacrificing anything in the park today at Camden. He continues to lead off, which is another bonus, and while Ubaldo has been fairly solid lately against RHB, Travis does have a lot of great hitters behind him to drive him in.
 | Evan Longoria | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.273 | 0.824 | 3.25% | 0.351 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.400 | 1.438 | 15.00% | 0.586 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Sabathia – LEFT | 0.320 | 0.921 | 2.64% | 0.401 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 1.002 | 0.000 | $3,800 | $11,400 | $4,200 | $81,900 | ||
Evan Longoria
Longoria will be a very highly owned pick tonight for a few reasons, but mostly because his BVP numbers against Sabathia are some of the most widely-known and talked about BVP numbers. I do not generally look at BVP since I would like a sample size of around 100 at-bats and we hardly have that with anyone. But, Longoria’s 58 at-bats (hitting for a 1.390 OPS and 6 HR with an OBP of .528) is getting close to that point where it is telling us something. A lot of it could be the fact that Sabathia struggles more against righties and Longo is a lefty masher, but I do not think there is any arguing being done about this being a great matchup for him.
 | Jung Ho Kang | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | |||||||
| Last 7 Days Splits | |||||||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Williams – RIGHT | |||||||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 0.929 | 0.000 | $7,250 | $3,900 | ||||
Jung Ho Kang
We have Kang hitting second now for the Pirates and producing. There has been a lot talk about if he could maintain his torrid hitting from Japan last year in the majors, and while he is not going to hit for a .356 average and 1.198 OPS forever, he is proving that he can do it at least for a short time. I do not think Jerome Williams is very good, and despite a 4.22 career xFIP and improvements from the beginning of his career against RHB, he still is a massive underdog. Plus, the Pirates have a 4 over/under.
 | Joc Pederson | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.174 | 0.561 | 0.00% | 0.293 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.182 | 0.948 | 13.64% | 0.393 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Koehler – RIGHT | |||||||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 0.907 | 0.000 | $4,300 | $10,350 | $4,400 | $70,200 | ||
Joc Pederson
Outfield spots have a ton of great options today, so Joc Pederson might go overlooked. He still is not one of the top priced outfielders out there and is leading off for one of the best offenses in all of baseball. Pederson’s price has declined $1,000 on DK for whatever reason, despite him not slowing down his production, and against Koehler today he makes one of the better outfield plays. Just plug him in your cash game lineups.
 | Bryce Harper | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.276 | 0.769 | 3.89% | 0.338 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.391 | 1.635 | 26.09% | 0.664 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Collmenter – RIGHT | 0.280 | 0.741 | 2.33% | 0.327 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 1.154 | 0.000 | $5,100 | $13,900 | $5,500 | $113,100 | ||
Bryce Harper
There was a point about this time two years ago when Josh Hamilton hit four homers in a single game, which was part of an insane hitting streak where you won if you plugged him in every single day. Harper is reaching that point right now and gets another great matchup against Collmenter in Chase Field. Collmenter is a decent pitcher, but Harper is on some sort of roll right now and has an absurd .458 woBA with a .390 ISO and 1.121 OPS. I do not care who he is facing – if it is a righty in a hitter’s park, I’m using Harper.
 | J.B. Shuck | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.148 | 0.394 | 2.27% | 0.170 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | |||||||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Peralta – RIGHT | 0.300 | 0.820 | 3.59% | 0.361 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 1.002 | 0.000 | $2,200 | $5,000 | $2,700 | $35,000 | ||
J.B. Shuck
Eaton has been miserable this year and Shuck got the start on Sunday. This is one of those situation where you are going to have to look at the lineup, but Shuck is nearly free on both sites. If he leads off, as he has recently, he could bring some SB upside. I would not be using him if he was not extremely cheap and probably will not consider him if he is hitting ninth, but to fit in the top pitchers today, or Harper, you need to find some value somewhere.
 | Alex Gordon | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.271 | 0.782 | 2.78% | 0.345 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.333 | 0.89 | 0.00% | 0.392 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Lewis – RIGHT | 0.316 | 0.853 | 2.55% | 0.373 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 1.052 | 0.000 | $3,200 | $9,600 | $4,600 | $67,400 | ||
Alex Gordon
Lewis has been great lately, which is extremely surprising to me. He has not been the same homer prone pitcher we are used to seeing and he has stranded a ton of runners. The problem is his xFIP stays around a 5.38, with a ton of his pitches continually being hit hard, and his BABIP is way low, so we should expect a regression. Gordon has mashed right-handed pitching in his career with a .350 wOBA and a .167 ISO. Gordon is in a solid spot tonight in a hitter’s park.
 | Jimmy Paredes | ||||||
| Daily Breakdown | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left/Right Splits | 0.264 | 0.687 | 1.89% | 0.303 | |||
| Last 7 Days Splits | 0.320 | 1.05 | 8.00% | 0.444 | |||
| Opp SP vs. LR | Avg | OPS | HR% | wOBA | |||
| Estrada – RIGHT | 0.222 | 0.719 | 5.18% | 0.316 | |||
| PARK-1 | PARK-LR | FD | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| 0.932 | 0.000 | $3,400 | $6,700 | $4,400 | $82,500 | ||
Jimmy Paredes
Paredes continues to produce day after day in the two-hole for the Orioles. As one of the top offenses in all MLB metrics, the two-hole hitter in the Orioles lineup has extreme upside. He is obliterating right-handed pitching so far with a .462 wOBA, 1.086 OPS and .353 ISO. Those numbers are way above his career numbers, but he is continually put in great spots by this offense and continues to produce.